With a life goal of eating pizza in every country, Turkish Cypriot blogger Teral Atilan, is the lifestyle blogger that approaches fashion and travel, often together. Noting her blog as a way to feel more confident, meet people and showcase her love of clothing and styling, her once university application blog has expanded rapidly.
Teral's consideration and realistic approach to her uniquely modern position an influencer, disproves any myths of bloggers as without substance. With blog posts titled 'How to feel good enough in the blogging industry' and 'why you should be happy to fail', Teral's honesty is something unusual in an industry that craves 'authenticity'. We caught up with Teral on the set of the GFW18 campaign photoshoot to find out what she loves about London, why she's exploring photography more and what keeps her grounded.
Firstly, what made you want to be involved with Graduate Fashion Week?
I thought it was such a great opportunity to get to see some the designers and to wear their products and see what they look like on!
What collections have caught your eye, have there been any specific garments that you’ve loved?
The one that I'm wearing right now is incredible. It's very heavy, it's rubber and it's long. It's got a lining inside which makes it really comfortable but it is very very heavy. It’s a show stopper!
So London is the home of Graduate Fashion Week! What do you think of when you think about the London fashion scene?
Quirky! I think London fashion is very very quirky and a lot of denim! London is home and you can't beat home can you! I was born in London and brought up here so London is always gunna have a part in my heart.
Being an influencer is quite a modern job, Is it something you foresaw yourself doing or did you fall into it?
I never saw myself doing this, I studied journalism so I wanted to work for magazines. So for my London School of Communication interview I wanted to stand out and I thought how can I stand out? So I started a blog in 2010, when it was a really really new concept. They loved it so much that they gave me an unconditional offer there and then - they thought was so forward thinking. I kind of shut the blog down as I thought I got what I needed to get into uni. It wasn’t until my last year in 2013 that I was like, I should start it up again! Who knows what could come from it and I just kept doing it!
How do you make sure you stay true to yourself on social media?
I think my family really help me stay grounded, my family, my boyfriend. lf I think oh that's not doing so well...they're just like sit down! It's just social media, they never let me get a big head. I think staying grounded really helps you stay true to who you are.
I even had ‘This is not real life ‘ on my instagram bio and everyone was like I cant believe you said that! But I was like yeah but it's not! No one stands there with a newspaper. I post a lot of before and afters on my insta stories to show people that I’m still staying true and genuine to who I am.
What made you come up with that idea?
I have always been interested in photography and pictures. Everyone was like your work is so good, and when I started to show people what it was like before and after, there were like wow it's really good.
I was in Tel Aviv and photographed a crane and everyone was like omg how did you do that so it spurred me to do more. And to show that its not perfect and that I try to make it as perfect as I can. It’s a completely different world, I’ve been learning so much just from Youtube!
At the moment the students/ soon to be graduates are in their studios getting ready for graduate fashion week? What advice would you give them?
I think to just enjoy it because before you know it you’re a graudate and kind of lost and don’t know what to do! So enjoy these moments because you’ll never get them back. And its probably their first big show so have the best time ever!